Kivu was asked by Cancer Research UK to design and then implement a multi-year policy influencing programme in Sri Lanka and Nepal focused on strengthening tobacco control policies in both countries.
In Sri Lanka, Kivu worked with a local think tank, the Institute for Policy Research (IPS) to develop a policy-focused research agenda that had to adapt to a rapidly changing political and economic context and navigate countervailing pressures from an active tobacco industry. Across the 5 years of the programme Kivu and IPS had to adjust policy influencing strategies and tactics to significant shifts in political power, with the rise and fall of the Presidency of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, as well as the collapse in the economy and living standards, precipitated by Covid-19 and a sovereign debt crisis.
Kivu and IPS, working alongside a coalition of CSOs, reform-minded officials and advisers, and public health bodies, used a mix of elite-level “insider” and bottom-up “outsider” approaches to successfully advocate for substantial reforms to tobacco control policy.
The programme is highly regarded by CRUK and secured successive increases in cigarette excise duties, representing an average cumulative increase in tobacco excise duty of over 75%, a fall in the smoking prevalence rate from around c. 15% to c. 9%, and an increase in government revenue from tobacco taxes.